Foul detector and indicator for bowling alleys



Dec. 7, 1948. P. M. SMITH FOUL DETECTQR AND INDICATOR FOR BOWLING ALLEYS 2 Sheets-Sheet l .Filed D60. 3, 1941 P. M. SMITH FOUL DETECTOR AND INDICATOR FOR BOWLING ALLEYS Filed Dec. 3, 1941 Dec. 7, 1948.

2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INQ lllllllllllllllllll II III Q Q a five/1hr 21mm my! H NW mm x MM wm oh Q mm l l l I l QM NM WW NM Patented Dec. 7, 1948 FOUL DETECTOR AND INDICATOR FOB BOWLING ALLEY Putnam M. Smith, Redwood'Falls, aaaig nor of one-half to A. Leslie lanes, In, Redwood Falls, Minn.

Application December a, 1941, Serial No. 421,435 2 Claims. (01. 213-50) my invention relates to an improved system and apparatus for automatically detecting and indicating iouls made by bowlers, a foul in the game of bowling being the crossing of the foul line between the approach to a bowling alley and the alley proper by a bowlers foot or any part thereof. In league bowling penalties are provided for players projecting any portion of their foot over the foul line and foul Judges are usually provided for the purpose of detecting such fouls and indicating such to the interested players. Usual ly there is only one fou line judge for several parallel alleys in use at the same time so that the responsibility of the foul Judge is quite great and the likelihood of his making an error, particularly by way of an oversight of a foul by one bowler when two or more bowlers foul at the same time, is ever present. In some cases the foul judge merely calls the fouls orally and in other cases each alley is provided with a suitable foul signal in the nature of a lamp, a bell, or both,

under control of the foul line judge.

There has been a long recognized demand for a thoroughly dependable and accurate system for automatically detecting and signalling fouls as they occur on bowling alleys and while several attempts have hitherto been made to provide such automatic apparatus and while apparatus intended to accomplish these results has been commercially-tried, these have largely been abandoned or greatly restricted in use usually because the automatic apparatus would fail, under some conditions, to call a foul when it was made, and would fall under other conditions to distinguish between a ball crossing the foul line and a bowlers foot and would thereby indicate a foul when no foul was"actually made.

An object of the present invention is, therefore, the provision of a greatly improved i'oul detectingiand indicating system which will largely overcome the above noted and other objections to previous systems of this kind and will provide an accurate apparatus for detecting and indicating such fouls by signal.

The present invention employs means for projecting rays over and parallel to the foul line of the bowling alley at a level to be intercepted by a bowling ball or a bowlers foot crossing the foul line together with light my responsive foul detecting signal control apparatus for detecting interception or the projected rays and operating the foul signal. To this extent the apparatus of the present invention is similar to certain prior art apparatus but, very broadly stated, it may be said that the apparatus of the present invention is Ill distinguished from prior art apparatus or the light ray responsive type by the incorporation therein or a plurality of light ray responsive devices jointly controlling the operation of the foul signal and arranged so that the light rays thereto will be intercepted successively and in one predetermined order by the bowling ball rolled over the foul line and in a diflerent order of progression or singularly by a bowlers foot crossing the foul line'; whereas, the general practice in the prior'art has been to employ a single light ray responsive control device. With the multiple light ray responsive control devices of the present invention the matter of distinguishing between the .bowling ball rolled over the foul line and a bowlers foot projected over the foul line is very simply and positively accomplished by employing certain of the light ray responsive control devices for the purpose of rendering the other or such light'ray responsive control devices ineffective for the purpose of operating the foul signal under certain predetermined conditions of progressive interruption of the light rays to the different light sensitive control devices. By experience in actual use of the device in commercial bowling alleys, I found that fouls are called with a much' higher degree of accuracy than was the' case in prior art devices employing only a single light ray responsive control device and in which, according to customary practice, distinction between a ball rolled over the foul line and a bowlers toot projected over the foul line was usually made on the'basis of a calculated difference in the time intervals that the light rays to the control device would be intercepted by a bowling ball on one hand and a bowlers foot on the other, it having been assumed that the bowling ball would pass over the 1011] line more rapidly than a bowlers foot.

The above and numerous other important ob jects, advantages and structural features will be made apparent from the following specification, claims and appended drawings.

In the accompanying drawings wherein like characters indicate like parts throughout the several views:

Fig. 1 is a plan view with some parts broken away of a conventional bowling alley equipped with a foul detecting and indicatingsystem o! the present invention;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1 and illustrating two positions of a bowling ball rolling 'over the foul line and through the light ray beams cameos to two light ray responsive foul detecting and indicator control devices of the present system;

Fig. 8 is a view similar to Fig. 2 but illustrating a bowlers forefoot projected over the foul line and in position to intercept light rays to the lower of the two light ray responsive foul detector and indicator control devices of the circuit; and

Fig. 4 is a diagrammatic view illustrating a preierred electrical hook-up and the various component parts making up the preferred embodiment of the invention herein illustrated. With reference first to Figs. 1, 2 and 3, the conventional bowling alley is indicated by I, the parallelgutters at opposite sides of the alley are indicated by 6, the approach to the alley I by i and the bowling pins by 8. In these figures also the foul line marker between the run-way or approach I and alley 5. is indicated by 9.

The foul signal apparatus proper of the present invention preferably includes both. visual and audible signalling devices. contained within a common signal housing or casing 80 preferably located near the rear of the alley and suitably suspended above the same. The visual signal device is shown as being in the nature or an incandescent lamp l I and the audible signal device illustrated is in the nature of a bell 82 f the conventional electromagnetic type.

In the preferred embodiment of the invention herein illustrated two light beam projecting clevices employed and each of these includes an incandescent lamp and ll ht producing clevlces bly in a common Hg C3, @111. above the other and arrange to project t is in parallel. discs up erligl the incan l projector is int casing Q is provlcl I o n posits lamp Ll anti w the of C3. op= l3 ls located opertu es and 9. The narrow I @L om lamp will be projected th and. parallel o a horizontal plane nelo= nl pin 3 containing the longitudinally spaced relation tively close to hon diameter of a bowlln be longi cecl rnllel rela vol very close he plane of over the o it will he stores and C for the ectively are located. in some vertical plane to the described. ar rangem thereof, one in respect to the other, and to the diameter of bowling ball indicated by iii, a bowling l3 led over the foul line will successively l t ght beams from Li and L2. 0n the other liancl, y particular reference to Fig. 3, will be seen the. bowiefs foot l4 slides across the foul line, the forefoot interrupts the beam from L2 first and, if projected still further, may also break the beam from L6, but this case, the order in which the beams from Ll and L2 will be broken, will be reversed with re spectto the order of progression when a bowling ball is rolled over the foul line.

Located in directly opposed relation to the light source casing C and at the opposite end portion oi tlldlnrtlly tion thereto diameter "2? a bowl seen the light c lamps Li and r lcn itncllnclly ill lamp LI and the latter coaxial with the light beam projected from L2.

The elements PI and P2, and Vi and V2. contained within the casing II, form part of the si nal control apparatus, the other elements of which are largely contained within a casing or housing 86 which, in turn, is preferably located near the rear of the alleys. A plurality of lead wires extend between the'casings l5 and i8 and are intermedlately coupled together by a coupling of the multiple prong and socket type.

The entire apparatus hereof is powered from a conventional alternating current power line consisting of leads l1 and i8 and which, for the purpose of this case, may be assumed to carry 110 volts. The power line leads ill and IE enter a combination switch and fuse box I! mounted on the casing to and are connected, the former to one side of a master control switch S and the latter to one side of a fuse F. The switch S has a control element 22G projects through the box i9 and is conveniently operated by the pin setter.

Contained within the casing iii are electromagnetically operated relays ltl, R2, and R4, electronic vacuum tubes a V5 ans Tl, Tl, Elle relays lclnclc solenoid coil. we immediately .tner includes a single e throw switch com 1 contacts cl and relay Eli; lumber. .e es a single slnglc throw switch comprising contacts 25 and 25. R3 for .er includes a single pole, olouble throw switch col contacts 26,52? and 28, a single throw switch comprising contacts 29 and ill and single pole switch comprising con Ell and "4. Relay Rt fnrther includes a single pole, single throw switch comprising contacts 33 and 3 The tramformers Tl to T4, inclusive, are or" the step-down variety and each comprise a primary winding 35 and a low voltage secondary winding 36. The primaries 35 of the transformers lit to It, inclusive, are all connected in parallel to the power line through the switch :53 and fuse F by leads 3! and 38. Transformer "ll has its lcw-svoltage secondary 38 connected in parallel to the lzienters or filaments 39 of vacuum tubes W and ill, by leads'4ll and 4!, a pair of branch leads 42, and another pair of branch leads 43. The secondary winding 36 of transformer T2 is connected by leads 44 to the filament 45 oi vacuum tube V3. The secondary 36 of transformer T3 is connected to the opposite sides of the filaments of lamps Li and L2 by a pair of loads 46 connecting directly to the filament of L2 pair oi branch leads 41 connecting the filament oi Ll in parallel with the filament 01 Li. Transformer T4 supplies filament current to tubes V i ancl V5. The circuit for the filament 48 01' V4 comprises a lead 48 extending from one side of the secondary 38 of transformer T4 to one side of the filament 48 of V4, a lead 50 connecting the other siole oi the filament 48 of V4 to contact 26 of relay R3, contact 28 of R3, and a lead 5! from contact 28 of R3 back to the secondary 36 oil transformer T l.

The photo-electric cells PI and P2 are ing when the light through part of lead 34-, a lead 14,

The circuit of the filament 32 of tube V3 comprises part of lead 43 from one side of the secondary 33 of transformer T4, a short lead '3 to one side of filament 32, a lead 34 from the other side of the filament 32 to contact 21 of relay R3, the switch contact 23 and the lead II which returns to the secondary 33 of T4.

The filament of the signal lamp II is operated at line voltage and is connected to the leads 31 and 33 by a circuit comprising a lead 33 extending to the filament from the lead 31 and a lead 33 having interposed therein contacts 32 and 3| of relay R3 and extending to power line lead 33. The signal bell I2 is operated from the low-voltage secondary winding 31 of a transformer T3, located in the signal housing II, by a circuit comprising a lead 53 and a lead 33 having interposed therein the contacts 34 and 33 of relay R4. The primary winding 51' of the transformer Tiis connected in parallel with the filament of the signal lamp II by leads 63 and 3|.

The photo-electric cells PI and P2 are supplied with pulsating'direct current from the alternating current power leads 31 and 33 through the-medium of V3 {which has its plate 62 and two grids tied together to serve as a common anode and which anode is connected to the high voltage alternating current lead 31 by a lead I53. The cathode 34 of V3 is connected to the in-put of PI and P2 by a lead 34' and branch leads Q5 and 33. The out-put side of the photo-electric cell PI is connected to the A. C. line lead 33 by a load resistor 61 and a lead 63 to which lead the cathode 69 of VI is also connected. The out-put side of the photo-electric cell P2 is similarly connected to lead 33 by a load resistor 31", a lead 63' to which the cathode of V2 is also connected, and lead 33. Thus it will be seen that the photo-electric cells PI and P2 are connected in parallel to a pulsating direct current circuit including rectifier V3. With this arrangement, pulsating direct current at relatively high voltage will flow in the circuit of PI so long as PI is activated by light rays or waves from lamp LI but will cease or substantially cease flowray or wave beam to cell PI is interrupted, and pulsating current at relatively high voltage will flow in the circuit of cell P2 is activated by light rays or waves from lamp so long as cell P2 is activated by light rays or waves from lamp L2 but will substantially cease flowing when the light ray or wave beam to P2 is interrupted. Such interruption of the light my beam to cell PI and consequent modified current flow through the circult of PI will produce a variation in the voltage drop across resistor 31, which voltage variation will be impressed upon the grid II of VI through a suitable condenser 12, and the interruption of the light beam to P2 will cause a similar current variation in the circuit of P2 which will cause a similar voltage drop across resistor 31 which will be impressed upon the grid 12 of V2 through a suitable condenser 13. The voltage variations thus applied to the grid of VI will be amplifiedrand applied to actuate relay RI and the grid voltage variation thus applied to vacuum tube V2 will be amplified and used to actuate relay R2 It will be seen that the plate and an extra grid tube VI are connected together to form a common anode and are supplied with high voltage pulsating direct current from the rectifier V3 a lead I3, the coll-of relay RI and a lead 13. This high voltage circuit for the coil of relay RI will be completed through the vacuum tube VI, cathode 33 thereof, and lead 33 returning to the high voltage supply line lead 33. The plate and extra grid of tube V2 are connected together to form a common anode and are connected to the out-put or cathode side of the rectifier tube V3 through part of lead 34', lead I4, a lead 11, coil 2| of relay R2, and a lead 13. By reference to Fig. 4 it'will be seen that this last described high voltage circuit for R2 is completed from the out-put or cathode side of V2 through lead 33' and lead 33 to lead 33 of the power line.

Vacuum tube V4 serves merely as a rectifier for furnishing intermittent direct current to the coil 2| of relay R3 and has its two grids and its plate connected together to form acommon anode and these are connected to high voltage lead 31 through a lead 13, and its out-put or cathode side is connected to one side of the coil of relay R3 by lead 33. The other side of the coil of relay R3 is connected to power lead 33 by a lead 3| having interposed therein contacts 23 and'22 of relay RI and contacts 25 and 24 of relay R2, and the vertical part of lead 53. The switches of relays RI and R2- are therefore connected in series in the circuit of the coil of relay R3. Connected in shunt with the switches of relays RI and R2 are the switch contacts 23 and 30 of relay R3 and when these last named switch contacts 23 and 33 are closed, a shunt holding circuit for the coil of relay R3 is established independently of the switches of relays RI and R2.

Vacuum tub'e V3 has two plates connected together and serves as a source of rectified current for the coil 2| of relay R4. The connected plates of V! are connected to the power lead 31 in parallel withthe plate of V4 through lead 19. The filament 32 of rectifier tube V3 is connected to one side of the coil 2| of relay R4 through lead 33, part of lead 49, and a lead 32. The other side of .the coil 2| of relay R4 is connected'to the lead 33 of the power line by a lead 33.

In accordance with the preferred embodiment of the lnventionillustrated, suitable condensers 34 are connected one across each of the relay coils 2| and condensers 35, 33 and 31 are preferably connected in the electrical positions illustrated.

Operation To render the foul detecting and signal control mechanism operative, it is merely necessary to manually close the master control switch S and normally this switch will be closed and left closed during the entire period that the equipped alley is in use.

Upon closing of the manual control switch 8, the photo-electric cells PI and P2 will become activated by light rays or waves from LI and L2 respectively, so that the grids of VI and V2 will be swung in a positive direction with the result that sufllcient current will flow in the plate circuits of VI and V2 to energize the coils 2| of relays RI and R2, with the result that switch contacts 22 and 23 of relay RI will be closed and contacts 24 and 23 of relay R2 will be opened, see Fig. 4.

Now it will be apparent that, since the coil 2| of 1 relay R3 can only be energized by coincidental closing of the switches of relays RI and R2, the

spasm seen that in a normal condition of the apparatus the high voltage operating circuits for the signal transformer T5, supplying the low voltage to the signal bell, is closed through contacts 32 and 24 of relay R4 by virtue of the fact that contacts 21 and 28 in the filament circuit of vacuum tube V! are open so that there is no high voltage available through V to supply or energize the coil 2| of relay R4 during normal operating periods of the device or apparatus.

When a bowling ball I3 is rolled through the foul line, the activating light wave beams to photo-cells PI and P2 will be successively interrupted in the order named. That is to say that the light beam to PI, being the closest to the plane of the diameter of the ball M, will be interrupted first, and that the light beam to P2, being lower and further from the plane of the diameter of the ball, will be interrupted secondly. Hence, when cell Pl becomes de=octivated by interruption of its activating light beam, the grid 1| of VI will swing negative and substantially stop the current flow through the plate circuit of Vi and the coil 2i of relay the result that coil 2i of relay RI will immediately be tie-energized and will permit opening or switch contacts 22 and 23 thereof; and upon tie-activation oi cell P2 by interruption of the light beam thereto, the grid l2 of V2 will swing negative and substantially stop the current flow through the plate circuit of V2 and the coil 29 of the relay R22 with the result that coil 2i of relay will become de energized and permit closing of contacts 2 25. Eince this closing of contacts M and 25 oc curs, under the conditions described, suhseoguent to the opening of contacts and E22 while the ball is still interrupting the light beam to Pi, no closing of the circuit through cell ll of R3 will result and no signal will he produced. @2

course, the contacts of relays El and will re main, the former in an open position and the latter in a closed position during the interval that the beams to both Pi and P2 are being intern cepted by the ball, but the rolling ball will move out of the path or licht rays or Waves to cell Pl first, thereby causing opening oi contacts ll and 25 of relay R2, and will then roll out of the path of the beam of light rays to cell Pl, thereby per= mitting subsequent closingor the contacts 22 and 23 of Hi. Obviously this returning oi the switches of relays R9 and R2 to their normal positions in the order specified, under passage of a ball over the foul line, will not result in energization of the coil 2| of relay R3 and, hence, will not produce any signal for the reason that the switch contacts 24' and 25 of relay R2 are opened prior to the re-closing of switch contacts 222 and 23 of relay RI. Hence, it will be seen that the rolling of ball over the foul line and through the light .beams to photo-electric cells Pi and P2 will not and cannot result in a signal by either lamp or hell and this irrespective of the speed of the ball as it rolls through the light beams.

Now by particular reference to Fig, 3 it will be noted that when a bowler fouls by sliding his foot over the foul line, either one of two things will happen, to wit, in some instances the bowlers forefoot will intercept the light beam. from L2 to P2 and stop there without ever intercepting the beam to cell Pi; while in other instances, the bowlers forefoot may first interrupt the beam to closing of switch contact 28 (Kill J tion is the fact that the cell P2 and then continue forward and subtle quentiy break the beam to cell Pl which will, course, be breaking the beams in the reverse or der with respect to the order in which the beams are broken when a ball passes through. In either instance, however, the breaking of the beam to cell P2 and consequent de-activation of cell P2 while PI is in an activated condition, will result in the de-energization of the coil 2| of relay R2 and the closing of the contacts 24 and 2! of relay R2 which, in turn, results in energization of the coil 2| of relay R3 and the moving of switch contacts 28, 20 and I2 of relay R8 to their upper signal operating positions with the following results, to wit: (a) the closing of contacts 2! and 30 and consequent completion of the circuit through the coil 2| of relay R2 independently of the switch contacts of relays RI and R2, so that the passing of a bowlers foot out of the light beam to either or both of the photo-cells Pi and P2 has no effect; (b) the closing of the switch contacts 3| and 32 of relay R2, completing the high voltage operating circuits or the signal lamp and bell, thereby setting both thereof in operation simultaneously, the hell I? operating by virtue of the further fact that contacts 23 and 24 of relay R4 are closed during this time and pending the energization of the coil of relay R4; (0) the of relay RI with the contact El thereof closing the normally open filament circuit of V5 which is a fast heating type oi tube and heats up and becomes operative after about five seconds with the result that operating current flows therethrough and through the coil ll of relay R4 and causes opening of the switch contacts and 3 of relay R4 endcuts the signal bell out of operation after approximately five secends of operation; (cl) opening of contacts 23 and 28 of relay at the very start of the sig paling breaking the filament circuit or vacuum t VG which is or relatlvel; are slow heating and cooling time and will conti to sufiicient current through the same and the ill of relay to relay R2 operatlvely energized for a period oi anpro-"aimatcl5 twelve seconds, at w l time the tube will; have cooled sufiicie" to cause de-energization of the coil of rela and permit the contacts as, Bil and 332 thereof to return to their normal positions, shown by full lines in Fig. 4, thereby terminating the signal period, the lamp signaling period being terminated by opening oi contacts ti and 32 of relay R3.

Another very important feature of the invertcooling of the filament of V2 and. the consequent de-energization cf the coil of relay R3, results his complete resetting of all of the switches to their normal positions so that the apparatus is automatically and immediately l'e-=set and placed in condition to detect and indicate another foul as soon as one occurs.

In a sense the detecting and control apparatus described is a double or duplex system involving cooperating primary and secondary detecting and control apparatus, although numerous elements of the system are common both to the primary and secondary apparatus. In this connection elements Li, Pl, Vi, Bi and contacts 22 and 23 of RI may be said to form. the primary apparel tus when completed by the cooperating elements to the right thereof in Fig. 4, and elements L2, P2, V2, R2 and contacts 24 and 25 of R2 and all cooperating parts to the right of R! in Fig. 4 may be said to constitute the secondary appara tus. Oi course, elements and Ti are also com mon to the so-called primary and secondary apparatus. With the system thus divided into primary and secondary apparatus, it may be said that the primary apparatus is responsive to activation of its light ray responsive device Pi to ini tiate signal operation dependent upon a signal operative condition of the secondary apparatus and is responsive to tie-activation of Pi to render the secondary apparatus incapable of initiating operation of the signal; and that the secondary apparatus is responsive to activation of its light ray responsive detector P2 by light waves to render the primary control apparatus incapable of initiating operation of the signal and is responsive to interruption of projected light waves to its detector and control device P2 to initiate operation of the foul indicator dependent upon an indicator operative condition of the primary control apparatus.

Although the apparatus of the invention as presently constructed employs lamps LI and L2 of the type that produce light waves within the visible spectrum and employs photo-electric cells P! and P2 of the type that are responsive to waves or rays within the visible spectrum, the use of waves outside of the visible spectrum has been contemplated. and the terms light waves and "light rays have been used in a broad and liberal sense to cover and embrace devices producing or sensitive to light type waves either within or beyond the visible spectrum.

What I claim is:

1. In a foul detecting and indicating system for bowling alleys, a normally inoperative foul signaling device, an operating circuit for the signaling device which includes a normally open switch, electro-magnetically operated means for operating the signal circuit switch, a circuit for said electro-magnetically operated signal circuit switch operating means and which, circuit, includes a serially connected pair of switches, one of said pair of switches being normally open and the other of which is normally closed, another circuit for said electro-ma'gnetically operated signal switch operator and which includes a normally open switch under control of the said electro-magnetically operated switch operator and excludes said pair of switches, whereby to provide a holding circuit for maintaining the said electro-magnetlc signal switch operator energized independently of said pair oi switches after initial energization by coincidental closing of said pair of switches, separate electro-magnetically oper a'ted devices for independently operating the last said switches, light wave responsive control devices for independently controlling operation of said last named electro-magnetic switch operators, and means for projecting light waves from side to side of a bowling alley above and parallel to the foul line thereof and below the top of a bowling ball rolled over the foul line, said light wave responsive control devices each being subject to projected light waves that will be intercepted by a bowling ball rolled over the foul line.

2. The structure defined in claim 1 which further comprises a thermo-electronic tube connected serially in the holding circuit for the electro -magnetic signal switch operator and which thermo-electronic tube includes a heating lilament, and a normally closed circuit for said filament involving a normally closed electro-magnetically opened switch under control of the signal circuit control switch operator, whereby coincidentally with the starting of operation of the signal the fiament circuit of said thermo-electronic tube will be opened and said tube will begin to cool and will open the said holding circuit for the electro-magnetic signal switch operator after a pre-determined period of operation and the entire apparatus will be reset to its normal condition preparatory to detection and indication of another foul.

PUTNAM M. SMITH.

REFERENCES CITED The following references-are of record in the tile. of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,037,671 Yannes Apr. 14, 1936 2,099,764 Touceda Nov. 23, 1937 2,202,874 Seaman et al. May 28, 1940 2,214,274 Glendenning Sept. 10, 1940 

